nimbex1970

edited, found my answer. Thanks for sharing

now that you mention it.. we didn't have issues on the WOS early May. We were able to get 2 chairs near the pool. The pool staff was making circles checking on chairs. I was super busy with the grandsons and didn't take much notice of it.

I'm not fighting with the cheapie opener that they provide to you, lol. We do bring our own. I have asked a bartender to open a bottle before without a corkage fee when I forgot this past january.

There are several bloggers out there that used to work on cruise ships as well as FB groups for people that work on the ships. The breakdown of how tips work is shared through these sites and others. Because it varies through cruise lines, I have no memory on the specifics. Only that there are several hands in the pot that share the tipping revenue.

get the specialty dinning package and avoid the MDR. Its NOT the same. I did not believe the reviews and I was wrong.

I love RCCL, but consider the princess cruise that you fly into. The ship is the hotel. you only sleep there. I just spent 7 nights in Kona, the hotels are crazy expensive. Princess is the best way to see the islands and decide which one you want to stay at longer for a land vacay.

yup, they share with the barbacks that stock, bring ice to them and provide back up in busy times. The bar backs can provide beers and some basic drinks, but not mix... so the tip jar is indeed shared. It flows down, but it all provides us with a great experience.

yup, agree, we tip 20% for service. If others don't, I just don't care. I'm on vacay and I pay for good service.

solid point but no. I'm not one to email and complain... especially since I had a wonderful cruise sans the dining room food. I love the RCL product and aside from the food issue, I was very pleased and would return... Honestly.. I feel these are purposeful choices and complaining does nothing.

It's only two week post-cruise, however, I have not received this type of survey. One was specific to the Wifi and another was very general

nadda on my end.

I have NO idea what others do. We drive to Cape Canaveral, by the time we get there with traffic and park, we just aren't early these past two cruises. Prior to that, we would get there early and there were long lines outside, something I avoid like the plague. So my impression is that if one does not mind waiting outside, you can get in "early" after the suite and key folks get in.

Thanks for that, I appreciate the feedback. I choose the easy path out and quietly left. This does help to know in the future I can be more insistent. Just not my style for that dining moment. I hope this gets straightened out. It's just frustrating. I'd prefer not to be reprimanded at my dining table and it was not a positive experience for me and the family. Then they want a 10/10 for a survey, oyi!

I did not have a drink package, so I added $2 for every drink I ordered on the receipt (didn't want to carry singles around). 6th night of the cruise, we received three envelopes if we wanted to add additional cash. So we used one for the room steward. You can get these envelopes earlier through guest services if you prefer that. We did use cash for specialty dinning and just left $30 bucks in the bifold.

There is a kiosk across from the sorrento's pizza to book all your reservations with the exception of hibatchi at Izumi. On our May 7th sailing Izumi was initially sold out, but we called everyday to check for open reservations and we got one for 5 of us on day six (same day of calling). So keep checking! Also Wonderland was empty the first day when we went to check it out, so thats a good option to go to book your dinner times. However the Kiosk only took a few minutes in line, not a bad choice either.

the IHG hotels are nice as well, plenty of options.

they are charging us 75 each way for transfer, which we can do cheaper. I am assuming you can priceline or find a cheaper hotel and just pay the deviation fee and drop the transfer and hotel choices. I'm still learning NCL, but this may be your best option. Flying in the day of, is the worst thing to do. i could share a brief summary of an emergency health landing, having to sail without luggage for three days with you to get that point across. Too many variables to do the same day. I'm not trying to be rude at all, but if the price of the hotel puts you out of reach for the cruise that month, would waiting another month benefit you? The unknown costs of same-day travel may outweigh your potential savings. Concerned about your plan.

need an update!!! biting my nails for you!

For our group a one and done. I love quirky foods, however, my dinning date was my 6 year old grandson. Yeah, not a good idea. Luckily I fed him pizza prior. The world dessert was excellent to watch and eat. I heard this is available at 150 as well from my son. If you have the meal package, I would definitely do this once, take pictures. An alternative is to go to their bar, get a specialty drink and watch the food service for ideas on what is served. Also many youtube videos out there.

ok, I just looked, came back a bit over a week ago from Port Canaveral. I don't see an added tax, nor do I recall one being added on for the printed receipt. I didn't have the drink package.

Did ANYONE recently get a survey that asked about the dining room?

The two dress-your-best nights were nights 2 and 6. There was a Caribbean dress night. Some folks mention a wear white event? Because I wasn't linked with the online app for events, and I never picked up a paper one, I can't say for sure on that one. (cruising with little ones, I went with their flow of things). Can someone chime in about the theme nights?

I too was denied a second entrée until the one I was eating as an app was finished. This was last week on WOS. I have no intention to stir a pot, only to provide what I experienced. I also am not wasting my time complaining about a "fleet-wide" rule to someone in charge in the dining room that has no say over policy. Life is too short for me to bicker with a head waiter over this. Not their fault. I did notice that neither of my two surveys asked about the dining room service or the food specifically, but it's still early, we shall see.

Allure is my favorite ship. The high volume times at the buffet were the only crowded times, so we ate at the solarium or park cafe. I hate for you that only deck 14 is available, for obvious reasons. If the price and time is right for you, I would book it. We were under a pool once and there was deck chair scraping sounds early in the am, when they were putting the chairs back out after washing off the deck. I didn't care for it at all, but it was not a deal breaker, I just caught more sunrises

So now that I'm back from my WOS cruise, I started to focus on my April Viva TA cruise. I have never sailed NCL prior. After reviewing NCL insurance, it costs about 9.75% of the cost of the cruise, we are on for 19 days. The insurance is like $899 for both of us. It only provides 25k for emergency flight out, which is almost nothing. So I start reviewing the terms. NCL site states I only have 10 days from trip booking to cancel the insurance! Agggh. I somehow thought I would have more time, nope poor planning on my part. So I'm trying to gather as much info as possible prior to calling my rep. We have two Trans Atlantics through NCL in a year's time, it seemed logical to purchase the year plan from Allianz.. (waiting for a quote from them). Allianz also seems to have much higher rates of protection compared to the NCL site, so I would prefer this overall. Do I have to cancel the cruise to cancel the insurance? We normally just pay through the cruise line, but with a TA, want to be better prepared and $900 seems high. Can you fabulous folks share some insight as how to proceed? If I have to cancel and rebook, I'd rather know asap.